First, the very people who have been loudest in attacking President Trump about his performance at the Helsinki summit are the people who failed to protect America from Russian meddling in 2016. ..."

Second, the Trump administration has been far tougher on Russia than President Obama ever dreamed of being. The Trump administration is taking real actions designed to weaken Russia and force Putin to change his aggressive behavior.

The Trump administration has levied tough sanctions on Russia.

Also, President Trumps public lecture about Germany not buying natural gas from Russia was aimed at cutting Putin off from hard currency worth tens of billions of dollars and further weakening the Russian economy.

Furthermore, President Trumps efforts to get our European allies to increase their defense spending has a direct impact on Putin. The stronger NATO is, the less maneuvering room Russia has.

Beyond pressuring our allies, consider these specific steps President Trump has taken against Russia:

Where President Obama refused to provide serious weapons to the Ukrainians to help them defend themselves (his response was weakness on a pathetic scale), President Trump has approved the sale of offensive weapons to enable the Ukrainians to increase the cost of Russian aggression. ..."

More than 100 Russian individuals and companies have been sanctioned for a variety of reasons.

Despite the hysteria of the left, it is impossible to see the Trump administration as anything but firm in its dealing with Russia. Nothing done in Helsinki made life easier for the Putin regime in its continued economic decay and diplomatic isolation due to the sanctions regime.

Donald Trump: Putin has eaten Obamas lunch, therefore our lunch, for a long period of time

Mar 13, 2014 Eun Kyung Kim: TODAY SHOW (NBC)

Donald Trump slammed President Obama Thursday on TODAY for failing to take a stronger line against President Vladimir Putin in dealing with Ukraine, saying he feared Obama would now make up for lost time with imprudent moves to show his manhood.

The real estate mogul and reality-TV star, who has criticized Putin for sending military troops into Crimea, said Obama must now take fierce steps to prevent the situation from escalating further.

We should definitely do sanctions and we have to show some strengths. I mean, Putin has eaten Obamas lunch, therefore our lunch, for a long period of time, Trump said. ...

The president also reaffirmed his commitment to NATOs mutual-defense pact

Jul 6, 2017

President Trump called Russia a destabilizing influence in Europe and the Middle East, and urged it to join the community of responsible nations, in his strongest remarks yet against the regime of Vladimir Putin, whom he is scheduled to meet Friday in Hamburg for the first time.

His remarks in Warsaws Krasinski Square, which marks the 1944 Warsaw uprising against the Nazis, came after the U.S. agreed to sell Patriot missiles to Poland. The president also used the opportunity to reiterate the NATO commitment to mutual defense, a declaration he did not make during the NATO summit in May, prompting consternation among U.S. allies wary of Russias ambitions.

To those who would criticize our tough stance, I would point out that the United States has demonstratednot merely with its words but with its actionsthat we stand firmly behind Article 5, the mutual-defense commitment, Trump said Thursday. Words are easy, but actions are what matters. And for its own protection, Europe, and you know this, everybody knows this, everybody has to know this, Europe must do more.

Trump has repeatedly said NATO members must spend more on defensea position in line with past U.S. administrations. But he has been criticized because he appeared to suggest U.S. commitment to mutual defense was predicated on its allies defense spending. ...

What were dealing with is the  you know, theres an old proverb that says the Russian bear never dies, it just hibernates.

And the truth of the matter is, the weak and feckless foreign policy of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has awakened an aggression in Russia that first appeared a few years ago with their move in Georgia, now their move into Crimea, now their move into the wider Middle East.

Sen. DAmato Drops Bomb: Hillary Allowed Russia to Take Ownership of US Uranium to Sell to Iran

Jim Hoft Jul 3rd, 2016

Former Senator Al DAmato (R-NY) dropped a bomb on Sunday Morning Futures this AM. DAmato told Maria Bartiromo that Hillary allowed Russia to take ownership of US uranium so they could sell it to Iran.

Hillary made it possible for the Russians to take control of one of our huge uranium producers and allow them to own the company, export the uranium and who do they sell the uranium to? Iran!

Now if people knew that and that the foundation as a result of that got $135 million. I think people would start saying, What?

Its true.

In January 2013, Pravda celebrated the Russian atomic energy agencys purchase of the company Uranium One in Canada.

That same company, Uranium One, owned uranium concessions in the United States. Because uranium is a strategically important commodity, the Russians would need approval from the Obama administration, including Hillarys State Department, before the purchase took place.

Nine shareholders in Uranium One just happened to provide more than $145 million in donations to the Clinton Foundation in the run-up to State Department approval.

The Clintons took the cash from Uranium One officials before the deal was approved by Hillary Clintons State Department. The Clintons hid the donations which is a clear violation of the Memorandum of Understanding Hillary Clinton signed with the Obama administration wherein she promised and agreed to publicly disclose all donations during her tenure as Secreatary of State. (Via Breitbart)

The New York Times reported on the crooked deal in 2015.

As the Russians gradually assumed control of Uranium One in three separate transactions from 2009 to 2013, Canadian records show, a flow of cash made its way to the Clinton Foundation. Uranium Ones chairman used his family foundation to make four donations totaling $2.35 million. Those contributions were not publicly disclosed by the Clintons, despite an agreement Mrs. Clinton had struck with the Obama White House to publicly identify all donors. Other people with ties to the company made donations as well.

And then theres this...

Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) told Greta Van Susteren the deal Hillary approved gave Putin ownership of 20 percent of US uranium and Russia sells uranium to unfriendly countries, including Iran.

Obama allowing Iran to purchase uranium from Russia

Daniel Horowitz | January 10, 2017

Remember those side deals Obama forged with Iran that were not part of the text of the official treaty? Now we are finding out some of the details.

Yesterday, the Washington Free Beacon reported that Iranian officials confirmed they have received at least $10 billion in cash, commodities, and assets from Washington since 2013. And that is likely a conservative estimate.

But cash is not the only thing the Islamic Republic of Iran is receiving for gracing us with their willingness to sign onto our own capitulation.

The AP is reporting that Russia, with the support of President Obama, is shipping Iran 116 metric tons of natural uranium.

While Iranian officials have obviously declined to disclose the use of such uranium, AP notes that this is enough to enrich weapons-grade uranium for nuclear bombs:

Despite present restrictions on its enrichment program, however, the amount of natural uranium is significant should Iran decide to keep it in storage, considering its potential uses once some limits on Tehrans nuclear activities start to expire in less than a decade.

David Albright, whose Institute of Science and International Security often briefs U.S. lawmakers on Irans nuclear program, says the shipment could be enriched to enough weapons-grade uranium for more than 10 simple nuclear bombs, depending on the efficiency of the enrichment process and the design of the nuclear weapon. ...

White House goes on offense, slams DNC, Clintons for collusion

The White House has been grappling all week with revelations of a meeting the presidents eldest son held last year with Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya, who was said to have dirt on Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian government effort to help the Trump campaign.

But Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders used Wednesdays off-camera briefing to highlight DNC and Clinton ties to foreign governments including Russia and Ukraine.

If were looking at Russia relationships with anybody, it would be directly with the Clintons, she said, citing examples of a speech former President Bill Clinton gave in Russia for which he reportedly earned over $500,000 and reports of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton selling what Sanders described as a third of the worlds uranium, to Russia.

"Obama was talking with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev when neither of them realized that their conversation was being picked up by microphones. Here is what they said:

Obama: "On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved, but it's important for him to give me space."

Medvedev: "Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you ..."

Obama: "This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility."

Medvedev: "I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir."

"This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility." That statement tells us much about the president's mindset.

The specific mention of missile defense is worrisome enough. Mr. Obama has retreated from the missile defense plan that was negotiated with European allies during the George W. Bush administration.

Apparently, he is signaling Moscow that he intends to retreat further. The clear implication from the president's comments is that he cannot tell the American people before the election what he plans to do after the election.

In addition, there is the phrase "on all these issues," implying more is at stake than just missile defense."

Obama To Betray Missile Defense Secrets To Moscow

Appeasement: From ObamaCare to recess appointments, honoring the Constitution has not been an administration hallmark. But when it comes to betraying secrets to mollify the Russians, it becomes a document the president hides behind.

It was bad enough that the 2012 defense authorization bill signed by President Obama set America on a downward spiral of military mediocrity.

He also issued a signing statement, something he once opposed, saying that language in the bill aimed at protecting top-secret technical data on the U.S. Standard Missile-3 - linchpin of our missile defense - might impinge on his constitutional foreign-policy authority.

Section 1227 of the defense law prohibits spending any funds that would be used to give Russian officials access to sensitive missile-defense technology as part of a cooperation agreement without first sending Congress a report identifying the specific secrets, how they'd be used and steps to protect the data from compromise.

The president is required to certify that any technology shared will not be passed on to third parties such as China, North Korea or Iran, that the Russians will not use transferred secrets to develop countermeasures and that the Russians are reciprocating in sharing missile-defense technology. ..."

"In his signing statement, Obama said he would treat these legal restrictions as 'non-binding' and that 'my administration will also interpret and implement section 1244 (sic) in a manner that does not interfere with the president's constitutional authority to conduct foreign affairs and avoids the undue disclosure of sensitive diplomatic communications.'

Betraying our secrets is easy for a president who betrayed allies Poland and the Czech Republic to placate Moscow.

Poland was to host ground-based interceptors such as those we've deployed in California and Alaska, with missile-tracking radar deployed in the Czech Republic.

Obama pulled the plug when Moscow objected. Never mind, he said, we have a better approach: a four-phase plan that calls for using three versions of the Navy's Standard SM-3 interceptor missile that forms the backbone of its Aegis missile-defense system.

The fourth phase consists of a missile still on the drawing board scheduled for deployment by 2020, a version of the SM-3 called the Block IIB. It would intercept hostile missiles in the "early intercept" phase before an enemy missile could release its warheads and decoys. The Russians want the SM-3's secrets, and Obama appears to be willing to turn them over.

The president wants to save the New Start Treaty, which the Russians have threatened to abandon if we try to fully implement President Reagan's dream of defeating a nuclear missile attack.

Russia has unilaterally asserted that any qualitative or quantitative improvement in U.S. missile defenses would be grounds for withdrawal from the treaty.

Political commentators are now known as spin doctors who unfailingly interpret everything that happens in the best way possible for the side they represent.

But some commentators were hired because they were supposed to have some special expertise about politics. The hope was that they would be able to tell the public whether what this or that politician or party said or did was likely to succeed or to fail, to help or to hurt the politician, the party and the country.

It must be hard to wear the two hats -- partisan and specialist -- but I suspect Newt was wearing his specialist hat when he made those comments. He was saying that tactically Trump had blundered. Now he's taking a longer view here. You can call it partisan or you can say that it reflects the bigger picture -- the level of long-term strategy, rather than that of short-term tactics.

Because Newt is a creature of the MSM. He still gets most of his information from them, digests their garbage on a daily basis and participates occasionally in their folly. But even Newt is not a stupid man and when he saw the context of POTUS’ subsequent clarification and the huge support for President Trump even he had to have a sober second thought after the hysteria and manufactured outrage settled down.

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